In the prior art, various methods and devices have been proposed for sharpening skate blades. Typically, skates are ground using a rotating abrasive wheel or the like. In these types of skate sharpening methods, the rotating wheels are generally revolving at high speeds to ensure adequate stock removal from the skate surface so as to provide a sharpened edge.
In addition to sharpening skates using a rotating wheel, portable or hand-held skate sharpening devices have been proposed for various purposes. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,398,566 to Talbert, a skate sharpener is disclosed which may be hand operated and carried in a pocket to facilitate sharpening of skates at any time or place. In this patent, the skate sharpener includes either a block of carborundum or a file as the sharpening element. U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,975 to Scholler discloses another hand-held skate sharpener which is designed to accommodate different widths of skates. Again, the skate sharpener of Scholler uses a cylindrical grindstone or an abrasive sheet as the sharpening member.
However, the prior art also recognizes that skate sharpening using a rotating emery wheel produces a sharpened skate blade which still has a roughened surface. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,672,508 to Vallery, a skate dressing tool is disclosed which is designed to smooth the roughness of a skate blade. In this tool, an abrading means such as sandpaper or emery cloth is provided in a hand-held tool for contacting a skate blade.
The prior art methods are still disadvantageous in that any abrading of the skate blade surfaces results in formation of burrs or impregnation into the skate blade surface of previously removed metal particles. As such, a need has developed for improved methods and devices for treating sharpened skate blades to enhance skate blade performance during use. The deficiency in prior art sharpening methods and devices is even more apparent in view of the increase demand of superior skate performance as a result of the demands made by increasingly athletic skaters.
In response to this need, the present invention provides a skate finishing tool and method which are designed to finish sharpened skate blades to achieve unexpected surface quality resulting in unexpected improvements in skate blade performance. In one aspect of the present invention, a skate finishing tool includes a tool adapted to be hand-held and having one or more strips of leather for treating a skate blade.
In the prior art, the use of leather in stropping devices for razor blades is known. Each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,764,854 to Menken, 2,075,348 to Lara, 1,521,714 to Quintal and 1,301,801 to Adams disclose a leather stropping device for use with razor blades. Each of these stropping devices is designed such that the side surface of the razor blade is generally held parallel to the stropping surface. None of these patents teach or fairly suggest using a leather for finishing a previously sharpened skate blade or using the leather such that the surface thereof is generally perpendicular to an edge to be treated or finished.